There were faint stirrings of discomfort over the new ethics—or lack thereof. The Web site FoodEthics, launched by veteran bloggers Brooke Burton and Leah Greenstein in May 2009, published a Food Blog Code of Ethics that hedged on many of Claiborne’s principles, but still sought to partly maintain them: “We will try to visit a restaurant more than once (more than twice, if possible) before passing a final judgment . . . . We will sample the full range of items on menu. We will be fair to new restaurants . . . . We will wait at least one month after the restaurant opens, allowing them to work out some kinks, before writing a full-fledged review.” The code also urges bloggers to reveal when free food has been accepted, but a scan of blogs that review New York restaurants suggests that this is virtually never done.

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As The Service Coach, I offer a full range of service consulting for restaurants, hotels, and retail establishments. I offer corporate consulting services and training programs that support great hospitality and improve sales through in-house service needs assessments, corporate visioning work, manual writing, social media campaigns, service training, and “dining room school” (a program that gives restaurant managers/owners valuable service insights as they happen in real time).

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3 Comments

Hi Brooke,
I met you at Brad’s office and have since been to your blog several times.
Reading your blog makes me want to go back to Italy and I just returned when I met you
Just wanted to say hi and hope you are well
Dick Powell

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